Decompressing
by Wikitiki99
Summary: Being SheZow has it's more ordinary negative side-effects.


It was almost eerily quiet without Maz riding shotgun. There wasn't much human stirring happening in general at three in the morning on a Tuesday in the dead heat of summer, and after figuring out her comments weren't being appreciated Sheila had essentially put herself on standby, leaving Guy to his own thoughts.

The first few times Guy had been through this, she had listed out possible side-effects of extended use of his powers, especially pulling physically challenging all-nighters. There were normal things, like jitters and intense hunger and restless sleep, and not-so-normal possibilities, like not having the energy to change back and everything tasting like oranges.

The first time, it turned out, Guy just collapsed on the lair's floor and blacked out for twenty minutes.

By now it had become frighteningly routine. He was already feeling jittery and sleepy at the same time, and he became acutely conscious of the fact that he wasn't sweating at all.

He rolled into the lair as quietly as possible. Sheila's machinery hummed pink in a strangely natural, half-asleep way. She was either continuing her silence or had truthfully gone to sleep. Guy sighed, feeling a miniscule drop of tension leave him. He ran a hand through his hair, vaguely aware that he had no idea when he had changed back from SheZow.

"How're you feeling?"

Guy almost jumped out of the car and onto his feet to face this new attacker, but only managed to tense before he realized it was Maz. He opened his mouth to convey dismay at Maz's presence – the fact he was still awake, mainly – but found trying to talk only created a raspy noise and a sting in his throat.

Maz was already trying to help him out of the shehicle, but Guy slid out of his hands. His first order of business, once standing was accomplished, was stripping off his hoodie, which had suddenly decided to become strangling hot. He tried to keep it clutched in his hands, but ended up dropping it the second he started walking. Maz scooped it up and then hovered close behind him. Flexing his fingers and finding them half-numb, Guy looked back at Maz, a little weary of his own foot-eye coordination, and received an exhausted but genuine smile for his efforts.

The stairs were nearly a problem. Guy almost fell onto Maz twice, but luckily caught himself on the railing. His entire body ached in protest, but he'd probably knock Maz down the stairs if he fell onto him, no matter what Maz might think with his valiant hovering and steadying. There was a dim light in the main level of the house, partially illuminating the kitchen and throwing light out into the hallway.

"Your nose is bleeding." It took Guy far too long to process that it was Kelly who has whispered that, and Kelly who put her arm around his shoulders, and Kelly who was dragging him toward the bathroom, telling Maz to get some water and for Guy to quit knocking into things.

Rather futilely, Guy managed to get out the word, "Bed," but Kelly just gave him a sideways smile. She was pressing a tissue to his nose in an attempt to stop the bleeding, and trying to clean him up and find any other injuries that needed her attention.

"You think it's broken?" Guy tried to shake his head with Kelly still pinching his nose, wincing a little when her grip didn't loosen. "Anything else?" Having learned his lesson, Guy just gave her a weak thumbs up.

Thinking they were done, he attempted to replace Kelly's grip on his nose with his own and stand, but he was promptly shoved back down. He groaned.

"I know you're tired, but you're dehydrated, and probably in shock or something— Did Sheila do a scan or anything? Maz—"

"I'm pretty sure everything's fine, Sheila would have said something if it wasn't." Maz had appeared moments ago and was holding a bottle of water vaguely between Kelly and Guy. Kelly took it, uncapped it, and wrapped Guy's hands around it.

"Drink— slowly!" She stood, grabbing a rag and wetting it in the sink. Guy rolled his eyes, fairly certain he'd mastered the art of drinking water long ago. For all his certainty, though, he found his hands were shaking pretty badly and actually lifting the bottle was out of the question, let alone getting it all the way up to his mouth.

Kelly chose not to comment on his lack of movement, wiping the blood off of his face as well as she could.

"You could really use a shower, you know. And if you don't eat something soon— Have you eaten at all today? Guy, one day you're going to—"

Maz jumped to his rescue. "We're lucky he hasn't passed out yet; let's just go to bed and worry about the other stuff tomorrow?"

Kelly looked unconvinced but pretty exhausted. For some reason she started idly checking Guy's hands, running her thumb over his bruised knuckles.

"There's food in his room, anyway. We'll try to eat a little."

"I'd hardly call a box of crackers 'food.' Guy needs some protein, and—" Guy cut her off by groaning and leaning over to rest his head against her. She looked at him for a moment, swiping a bit of his hair back, and sighed. "Fine, but don't come crying to me if you end up in the hospital or something."

She pried the water bottle out of Guy's hands, muttering that he was at least going to drink half of it before she left him alone, while Maz dodged around her and started helping Guy back up.

With Maz now acting as something of a crutch, it was Kelly's turn to hover. Their parents hadn't stirred with all their whispering and knocking around downstairs, but the three still held their breath tip-toeing past their room.

Once they were safely in Guy's room, Kelly successfully stopped all of Guy's attempts at collapsing onto his bed and sleeping for three days. She hissed, "Sit up, sit up!" the second the boys made any sort of movement toward the bed, and physically held Guy up when Maz failed to reinforce her instructions.

She did carry out her water-drinking-enforcement promise. After what felt like an eternity, she lifted the water bottle, squinting as she estimated how much he'd downed, and smiled. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Guy groaned and fell back, finally lying down and closing his eyes. He didn't really feel tired anymore at this point, but he felt a lot more tension finally leave his body.

"He's still shaking a little; wake me up if you need me."

To Guy, Kelly's exit was only the sound of her socks listing against the carpet as she walked and the quiet swing of his door as she slid out. Maz exhaled hard.

"You think it's gonna be bad tonight?"

Guy paused. He wasn't sure what constituted a bad or good night anymore, not on these sorts of nights, so he just kind of shrugged, opening his eyes slightly. Maz was hunkering down next to him, lying on his stomach near the edge of the bed. Guy didn't have the energy to protest in any articulate way, but he frowned down at the bruises he'd kicked onto Maz's legs in his sleep, still present from the last time they'd gone through this.

Though Guy did feel bad, they both knew Maz being there was near-essential. Maz physically served as a buffer between Guy and a date with the floor, should any major movement happen during sleep or directly after, and they'd found his voice was strangely effective against nightmares — even the super ones that really like to pop up after nights like this.

The biggest problem at present was that he wasn't sleepy at all. He was exhausted and glad his body was finally halfway relaxed, but adrenaline was still coursing through him. With Guy safely in bed, Maz looked like he'd let go of any heroic ideas of staying wide awake right with Guy, but he still periodically sent a sleepy glance his way.

Guy managed to lift his arms and rub at his face, letting out a shaky sigh. The thought of another call – or, better yet, another forced transformation into SheZow because the danger was near enough – weighed down him. It was a nearly suffocating feeling, the thought of having to get back up again feeling exactly like he did now, achy and exhausted and shaking from the adrenaline that had kept him from passing out still running through him.

It was a vicious cycle. The more he worried about being too anxious to sleep, the more anxious he got. His stomach started clenching and flipping around, and eventually he shot right up to a sitting position, suddenly feeling too trapped between Maz and the wall to stay still.

Maz didn't even really seem startled by the sudden movement. He exhaled through his nose and opened his eyes a bit, only fully waking up when he caught sight of Guy. He sat up then, his face full of cautious concern.

Guy didn't realize his hands were up in front of his face until Maz took his wrists and lowered them

"You okay?"

Guy opened his mouth to reply, but Maz shifted his grip from his wrists to his hands, and all that came out was a sob. He tried to cover it with a cough, but his vocal chords seemed to have decided to only allow him that one desperate noise. So he blinked hard and lowered his head, blocking any visible signs of crying as well as he could.

"What's—What's wrong?" Maz attempted to raise a hand and wipe off the tears that had fallen despite Guy's best efforts, but Guy dodged him and sniffed hard, shaking his head. He thought he'd regained most of his composure when Maz threw him another curveball. He muttered, "It's okay," a rather ambiguous and probably false statement. It had the hysteric tears coming near-instantly.

"I'm _tired_." His words were probably no shock to Maz, nor would it be a shock to anyone, but it was probably one of the most wrenching statements Guy had ever torn out of himself. He was tired. Of everything. He wanted to curl up at the bottom of a deep dark hole and forget about being himself, let alone forget about being SheZow. He'd never been one for responsibility, even when his most serious duty had been remembering to mow the lawn. Now he couldn't mess up or take a break or people would get hurt, people would die—

Maz planting his hands on his shoulders brought him back, at least a little. He started coaxing him to lie back down.

"Ha-Hang on, I saw this on TV once."

Guy smiled in spite of himself, swiping at his face.

"Okay, so close your eyes and start flexing your toes."

"Whating my what?"

"Just trust me. This is, like, high-profile hypnotist sleeping spell stuff."

Guy sighed and did it. At least it was a distraction, of sorts.

Maz blundered around, clearly hardly remembering what to do but getting Guy to tense and relax key muscle groups from his toes to his neck. By the end of it, some of the knots in his muscles had worked themselves out, at least, and instead of his own buzzing thoughts, all he was really thinking about was what Maz was saying.

"Okay, so now imagine you're lying in a field."

Guy, despite a strong urge to, didn't respond, fearing he'd break whatever all the tensing and relaxing had started and they'd have to start over.

"Like, imagine the grass and everything. It should be nice grass, all soft. It's just you and the grass and the sky."

The laugh bubbled out of Guy before he could stop it.

"Okay, and you're just super relaxed in your—What's so funny?"

Guy shook his head, trying to compose himself. He gave up after mere moments, completely cracking and laughing out loud, ignoring the stinging pain in his wrecked throat.

"There was a cow."

"A _cow_?"

"In my—my grassy field. He was eating the super soft grass and everything."

"Dude, I was like seconds away from hypnotizing you asleep. I guess we have to start over—"

Guy's eyes opened halfway at that, and he put a staying hand on Maz's arm. "No, no, it's—" An excess giggle forced its way out of him—"It's fine. I think I can sleep now."

"Hah! Doctor Maz to the rescue." Maz hunkered down in his spot next to Guy once again, only half smiling. "Sorry you had such a rough night, dude."

Guy closed his eyes, snuggling into his pillow a bit and swiping at his cheeks one more time to ward off any phantom tears. "Sorry my cow ruined your grassy field."

Maz punched his shoulder and afterwards had the gall to laugh at Guy's pained groan. After failing cause any real damage with his weak swats, Guy fell asleep planning his revenge.


End file.
